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Millions of dollars in projected annual savings are in doubt as Dutchess County faces new hurdles that could impede the use of temporary inmate housing for its long-overcrowded jail.

Preliminary stipulations by the state agency that regulates jails, plus higher operational estimates to bring back housed-out inmates, could postpone and perhaps prevent the installation of “pods” at the jail, Deputy County Executive William O’Neil said Tuesday at the meeting of the Criminal Justice Council, which advises the county on relieving jail crowding.

Officials had proposed installing minimum-security structures, or pods, in early 2014 at the City of Poughkeepsie jail site on North Hamilton Street to house the nearly 200 inmates sent to other county jails daily. Meanwhile, a jail design consultant would determine where a new jail should be built and how big it should be. But even that study has been stalled for months.

Since the mid-1990s, Dutchess taxpayers have paid millions to other counties to board inmates because the 292-bed jail is too small and county leaders couldn’t agree on a solution, despite numerous studies.

The pod project’s annual savings were touted at $2.3 million through 2017.

However, the use of pods requires state Commission of Correction approval, and its demands regarding county commitment to jail construction are “things we can’t do,” O’Neil said.

The state “has indicated we can work through this, but we are at a point where I just don’t know,” he said. Negotiations are continuing.

The commission also may require that Dutchess hire correction officers to staff the pods, which would cost substantially more than paying current officers overtime, O’Neil said. Along with officers’ salary and benefits, the county faces higher food, medical and utility expenses associated with using pods than previously thought, he said.

“There are still some savings. My concern is, ‘Is it enough?’ ” he said.

Robin Lois, 44, of LaGrange said she was never sold on the idea of pods.

“I was always questioning how much it will really save us,” she said. “It’s actually cheaper, I think, to house them out than to bring them back.”

She questioned why the county wasn’t focusing on how to get mentally ill and drug-addicted inmates out of the jail and into treatment, which she thinks would be time better spent.